Standing at the parking garage at the corner of Pugh Street and Beaver Avenue in downtown State College this summer, Jim Latten wasn't seeing just a place to park your car, but space for orchestra performances, art exhibits, theater and dance shows.
"People would come into the main lobby facing Beaver Avenue, and walk into the theater," explained Latten, who is president of the board of the Nittany Performing Arts Centre.
The organization’s goal is to create a home for the area’s musical and arts groups to practice and put on professional and community productions. A community performing arts center in downtown State College has been in the works for some time, and organizers say they’re getting closer to bringing that idea to life, including recently unveiling design plans.
“We all scrounge for rehearsal space, for performance space," said Latten, who is a professor of music at Juniata College.
The idea has been in discussion for several years. This year, organizers worked with an architect on a conceptual design plan for creating the center in town. Those plans include a large theater with 800 seats, a smaller “Black Box” Theater, a lobby that could be used for art exhibits and room for offices. A parking garage and an indoor-outdoor rooftop area for gatherings are also in the design.
"We kind of lucked into this idea that the rooftop of the building will be a couple stories taller than what we see now with the Pugh Street garage," Latten said. "So it will actually overlook all the trees and be able to see Old Main from there. And it's really a fantastic place for weddings, wedding receptions, Penn State retirement parties, other things like that up there.”
The State College borough owns the parking garage. Borough Manager Tom Fountaine said the borough is supportive of the project and has been working with the art center’s organizers.
Fountaine said the parking garage is aging, and based on reports from structural engineers, likely has about five years left.
"The borough expects to construct a replacement garage before Pugh is taken out of service," Fountaine said in an email. Borough council would have to take action publicly to convey the property to the arts center.
Latten said the project does not have a specific timeline. They’ll be working on fundraising.
"We started with very meager grassroots ideas," he said. "But we're very excited now about the possibilities, and now we just hope that finances can come around and make it a reality as it has in other places."
Those include performing arts centers in Findlay, Ohio; Beaverton, Oregon; Burlington, Ontario; and Madison, Wisconsin.
